Having won the, by now race" shortly afte emerged ment. The contemptuously dismissed thoritative circles in Land with which Italy has sought before to cov up her reverses Instead of in which Italy severe damage upon the British fleet, and to have sunk a cruiser of the Neptune class, the facts now are made plain that HALS. Ajax, of River Plate fame, encountered three Italian destroyers about 80 miles south-east of Sicily last Saturday. Ajax immediately engaged them and sank two out of hand. Shortly afterwards she encountered " rather more formidable enemy formation consisting of one heavy cruiser and four destroyers She again engaged them crippling one destroyer, while the rest of the Italian force made off' in the othe Wt was ter that HALS. Y" i the Ajax, was in touch with considerable enemy forces, came up in support but no further contact with the enemy was made that night.
crippled destroyer was seen the next 1 being towed by an Italian destroyer erger class, which slipped the fowl cable when the York was sighted and made off, whereupon the York, afler giving the crew time to abandon ship, sank her, drop~ hi 's to assist the Italian seamen, and kon' to the length of wirelessing their position. She could do no more for them than that because when the Bartolomeo Colleoni was sunk some time ago British vessels seeking to rescue survivors were bombed by Italian aiveraft. Later British war vessels were attacked by enemy aviators suffering no damage nor casualties, And that is the story of the latest great Italian naval vietory,—two destroyers sunk out of id, a third crippled and finished off the next morning." The Ajax had a few casual ties and sustained some damage above the water-line, Great Britain will be eminently satisfied s0 long as Italy continues to secure such striking victories. Single-handed the Ajax after her encounter with the three destroyers, following British tradition engaged a superior force of a heavy cruiser and four attendant vessels, and the Italians, despite that superiority, made off after losing one of the destroyers. There cannot be the slightest doubt whose victory it was. The enemy fled while the Ajax remained on the scene of action, and Italy lost three units of her fleet. Considering the dimensions of a major naval engagement this action in the Mediterranean is comparatively a minor matter, but it is indicative of the situation in mare nostrum that a British cruiser unattended can go about her lawful occasions, and when the enemy does appear in sight engage him, Italian claims to have com= mand of the Mediterranean have to be regarded in the light of those facts, and the only possible conclusion to be drawn is that the Halians not only do not have control of those waters, but up to the present have made no real attempt to secure it, One of the outstanding features of these engagements is the efficiency of the gunnery of the Ajax, which was responsible for 30 quickly sealing the fate of the first two enemy destroyers. That the Ttalians fought thei' ships well is evidenced by the fact that they in their tum scored hits. on the Ajax, fortunately not causing any serious damage but inflicting casualties which are described by the Admiralty as being few, The British Navy conducted itself with the Rreatest of humanity towards the crew of the destroyer which the York had to sink, ind this is particularly noticeable in view of what happened on a previous occasion when British vessels were bombed while seeking to save Talian sailors. The action by the York should prove a lesson in chix vairy to the Italians, for while it would have been foolish to have stood by and awaited enemy air attack, she at least did all she could for the men in the water, Thus this Jatest engagement in the Mediterranean Is out 0 be not only a triumph for British naval traditions but for British con-Jderation ax well,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.